Ideas for our next contest

[LaLia]

I also think it's too early for the first idea, especially since the jury wouldn't be able to participate. But here's another similar idea: Instead of a remake, you could do the same thing by writing a sequel or prequel to a suitable source material. That would work without a jury.

Otherwise, I think the process, as Claire said, is quite good. However, I would be rather skeptical about a con contest at the moment. I would find LGBTQ rape more exciting, whereas at a con, it's quite possible that some people simply don't want to "waste" time on such a story.

One thing we could consider for the end of the year, while we were on the subject of juries: similar to the Oscars, different categories at the end of the year, and then polls. Best Story 2025 as the top category, of course.

[Claire]

So obviously I went with the female rapist idea but turned that into more general femdom. I'm experimenting with not adding a prompt this time, just to see how that goes. I also already know what the contest after that will be. And that contest will be our first medium length (5,000 to 15,000 words) contest with a 3 week writing period. Meanwhile, the Used and Abused tournament will keep going in parallel until voting for the final will presumably end on September 28.

[chloevee]

The Remake Contest

I like this idea, though I'd suggest a slight alteration. Contestants could also write a story from another POV (though perhaps that's part of what you meant), or add a prequel or additional chapter. This would work really well for Venus's touch, several people suggested something like that for Teamwork, and I know I've seen similar comments on other stories.

A Short Story Tournament

I haven't participated in any tournaments and I'm unlikely to, so feel free to disregard this. But it seems like if the stories are longer, you might want to make the number of rounds shorter.

I would like to use contests to get some more stories for certain niches, essentially to close some gaps in our catalogue of stories to attract more readers who are specifically into those niches.

It seems like there are fewer monster stories here comparatively, though that might be because that isn't an area that most people here are interested in. And while most of what @Vela Nanashi writes is scifi/fantasy, it seems like there are fewer of those by other authors. So one or both of those might be a good niche to fill, if there's sufficient interest.

[skuttrusk]

Monsters could be interesting. There are more possibilities than tentacles and bigfoots/feet. If you're not into the usual creature porn but want to take part it could give a good boost to your imagination...

[Blue]

...
I also already know what the contest after that will be. And that contest will be our first medium length (5,000 to 15,000 words) contest with a 3 week writing period.
...

@Claire
I see the problem with a competition with a maximum of 15,000 words as being less in the word count than with the authors themselves. Looking at my serialized stories in this way, I could certainly cover the topic in the allotted time.
What I fear, however, is that reading a story of this length will overwhelm some readers, and they'll stop reading quite quickly, even before they've skimmed through everything. That happens to me sometimes, too.
The problem will then fall back on the authors. If they fail to captivate readers with the first few paragraphs of such a long story, the competition will quickly lose its appeal.

A second problem, which I see in all competitions that aren't anonymous, is that readers often give a higher rating than the story deserves, simply because they like the author or perhaps have direct contact with them. Or, as you might notice now and then: I estimate that at least three-quarters of the members here are male. And in many cases, female authors are rated higher than their male competitors because the men are trying to attract the attention of women. I've observed this many times in various forums and on platforms that didn't just focus on "sex." When I posted a post under a male pseudonym, it received significantly fewer likes than when I posted the same post with a female nickname. This is a general problem, and I don't know how to tackle it, though. Ultimately, it's not important, as long as competitions are designed in such a way that at least a somewhat fair chance exists for every participant.

[Claire]

I see the problem with a competition with a maximum of 15,000 words as being less in the word count than with the authors themselves. Looking at my serialized stories in this way, I could certainly cover the topic in the allotted time.
What I fear, however, is that reading a story of this length will overwhelm some readers, and they'll stop reading quite quickly, even before they've skimmed through everything. That happens to me sometimes, too.
The problem will then fall back on the authors. If they fail to captivate readers with the first few paragraphs of such a long story, the competition will quickly lose its appeal.

I see your concerns and I share them. But honestly, I just want to try it and see what happens. Worst case scenario, it doesn't work and we don't do it again. We could also limit the word count to the 5,000 to 10,000 word range. But I can only encourage authors to treat the word limit as truly a limit and not a target. We'll just see what happens!

A second problem, which I see in all competitions that aren't anonymous, is that readers often give a higher rating than the story deserves, simply because they like the author or perhaps have direct contact with them. Or, as you might notice now and then: I estimate that at least three-quarters of the members here are male. And in many cases, female authors are rated higher than their male competitors because the men are trying to attract the attention of women.

Honestly, I don't understand the need to dismiss the stories of others like that. Of course, I can point to stories too where I wonder why this one in particular got that high rating and not another story. For example, I would much rather like to see @Shocker's SAM in the Popular Stories board than Fugitives. And I'm sure that SAM would have a higher rating if it got some extra attention from a contest participation, at least it would not be sitting at ~120 views currently. But I would never claim that the stories that I personally like less than the majority of readers didn't "deserve" their rating.

Also, I don't appreciate the casual dismissal of the achievements of our female authors. Maybe, just maybe, they are fairly high rated on average because their stories resonate with people? From my personal experience, I can tell you that nobody here has yet tried to use a rating or a comment on one of my stories to get in contact with me. And from what @Vela Nanashi and @chloevee tell me, it's the same for them. To give you a bit of a reality check here: I've been hit on by users on Literotica and AO3 where I also pusblished my stories. But it is very rare that these attempts to get "my attention" come with a deep reading of my stories first. Usually, men aren't as subtle as that. If anything, they notice that I write rape fantasy, don't say a word about any story I wrote, and then ask me to share my personal fantasies of getting raped with them in the first message they send me.

To give you a clear example here: @LaLia won three contests by now, one using a randomly assigned pen name. Despite being a fairly popular author and a young woman at that - young and female: a combination that gets you a lot of unwanted attention on the internet - her story for Gang Rape Galore did not automatically become a top contender for the contest when she messed up the inclusion of the theme. I see that as a strong sign that the popularity of her stories is not the result of her being female and that the community at large does differentiate on a story per story basis.

So if you truly wonder why certain stories by female authors have a high rating, maybe look at the stories and try to understand what they do differently rather than saying that stories of female authors are generally overrated.

[Blue]

Dear members, please don't misinterpret my words.
I appreciate every contribution published here. The mere fact that an author posts their story here is commendable.
And I certainly don't want to dismiss stories (okay, that may be true for two or three stories that have aroused general disapproval here).
And I certainly appreciate the stories of our female authors. What I may have expressed a little incorrectly:
I'm active in a wide variety of forums, etc., and on countless topics online. And what's noticeable almost everywhere (exceptions prove the rule): Articles by women are regularly rated higher than literally identical contributions published under a male pseudonym (though these aren't stories either, but rather contributions on specific topics or photos that are posted).
If that came across differently, I sincerely apologize for that!

[Vela Nanashi]

Also a request for future stories, how about we don't set a specific limit like min x words max y words. Just set a min x words or a max y words.

I prefer we do min x words and set that to lower limit for a short stort story, then let people write war and peace if they like

[RapeU]

Also a request for future stories, how about we don't set a specific limit like min x words max y words. Just set a min x words or a max y words.

I prefer we do min x words and set that to lower limit for a short stort story, then let people write war and peace if they like

I like that idea and it seems like it's already being done where you specify whether a story is flash, short, medium, or long based on the definitions located in the forum.

I also think it's a good idea to allow authors to write under the limit. For instance if it's a medium word count contest and the author decides to write a flash story they can, even though it would be pretty risky since flash is designed to have things purposefully left out. Of course we would never want authors to go way over the word limit.

[Lucius]

Also a request for future stories, how about we don't set a specific limit like min x words max y words. Just set a min x words or a max y words.

I prefer we do min x words and set that to lower limit for a short stort story, then let people write war and peace if they like

Certainly, Countess Lea, er, Vela! A good suggestion, actually.